2008
Young Reader's Choice Award Nominees

The Pacific Northwest Library Association's Young Reader's Choice Award is the oldest children's choice award in the U.S. and Canada. The award was established in 1940 by a Seattle bookseller, the late Harry Hartman, who believed every student should have an opportunity to select a book that gives her or him pleasure.

Nominations are taken only from the children, teachers, parents and librarians of the Pacific Northwest: Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Idaho, Montana, British Columbia, and Alberta.

Nominated titles were published three years previously, printed in the U.S. or Canada and are already favorites with the readers. Only 4th to 12th graders in the Pacific Northwest are eligible to vote. Read at least two books in your grade category and vote for your favorite in March 2008.

Nominees for the 2008 award are:


Junior Division, Grades 4-6

The Day Joanie Frankenhauser Became a Boy
by Francess Lanz

Tired of gender stereotyping at home, in the classroom, and especially on the football field, ten-year-old Joanie pretends to be a boy when her family moves to a new town, but soon finds there are unexpected consequences.

A Dog's Life
by Ann M. Martin

Squirrel, a stray puppy, tells her life story, from her nurturing mother and brother to making her own way in the world, facing busy highways, changing seasons, and humans both gentle and brutal.

Double Identity
by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Thirteen-year-old Bethany's parents have always been overprotective, but when they suddenly drop out of sight with no explanation, leaving her with an aunt she never knew existed, Bethany uncovers shocking secrets that make her question everything she thought she knew about herself and her family.

Listening for Lions
by Gloria Whelan

Left an orphan after the influenza epidemic in British East Africa in 1918, thirteen-year-old Rachel is tricked into assuming a deceased neighbor's identity to travel to England, where her only dream is to return to Africa and rebuild her parents' mission hospital.

Princess Academy
by Shannon Hale

While attending a strict academy for potential princesses with the other girls from her mountain village, fourteen-year-old Miri discovers unexpected talents and connections to her homeland.

The Scarecrow and his Servant
by Philip Pullman

A scarecrow and his boy servant, Jack, set off on a dangerous adventure as they try to outwit the crooked Buffaloni family and stake their claim to valuable Spring Valley.

Shakespeare's Secret
by Elise Broach

Named after a character in a Shakespeare play, misfit sixth-grader Hero becomes interested in exploring this unusual connection because of a valuable diamond supposedly hidden in her new house, an intriguing neighbor, and the unexpected attention of the most popular boy in school.

Whales on Stilts
by M. T. Anderson

Racing against the clock, shy middle-school student Lily and her best friends, Katie and Jasper, must foil the plot of her father's conniving boss to conquer the world using an army of whales.


Intermediate Division, Grades 7-9

Code Orange
by Caroline Cooney

While conducting research for a school paper on smallpox, Mitty finds an envelope containing 100-year-old smallpox scabs and fears that he has infected himself and all of New York City.

Flush
by Carl Hiaasen

With their father jailed for sinking a river boat, Noah Underwood and his younger sister, Abbey, must gather evidence that the owner of this floating casino is emptying his bilge tanks into the protected waters around their Florida Keys home.

Alice MacLeod, Realist at Last
by Susan Juby

Sixteen-year-old Alice uses her screen-writing aspirations to help her get through a challenging period in her life after her boyfriend goes to Scotland, her mother is jailed for environmental activism, and her depressed father cannot get a job.SEQUEL TO: Miss Smithers.

Eldest
by Christopher Paolini

After successfully evading an Urgals ambush, Eragon is adopted into the Ingeitum clan and sent to finish his training so he can further help the Varden in their struggle against the Empire.SEQUEL TO: Eragon.

Criss Cross
by Lynne Rae Perkins

Teenagers in a small town in the 1960s experience new thoughts and feelings, question their identities, connect, and disconnect as they search for the meaning of life and love.

The Lightning Thief
by Rick Riordan

After learning that the father he never knew is Poseidon, God of the Sea, Percy Jackson is transferred from boarding school to Camp Half-Blood, a summer camp for demigods, and becomes involved in a quest to prevent a war between the gods.First in a series.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
by J. K. Rowling

Sixth-year Hogwarts student Harry Potter gains valuable insights into the boy Voldemort once was, even as his own world is transformed by maturing friendships, schoolwork assistance from an unexpected source, and devastating losses.Sixth in the HARRY POTTER series.

Uglies
by Scott Westerfield

Transformation into a super beauty on her sixteenth birthday and reuniting with her friend Peris will only happen if Tally Youngblood's friend Shay also agrees to the operation.First in a trilogy.


Senior Division, Grades 10-12

Anansi Boys
by Neil Gaiman

When "Fat Charlie" Nancy learns of the death of his estranged father in Florida, he attends the funeral and learns two facts that turn his well-ordered existence upside-down: that his father was a human form of Anansi, the African trickster god, and that he has a brother, Spider, who has inherited some of their father's godlike abilities.

Dark Sons
by Nikki Grimes

Alternating poems compare and contrast the conflicted feelings of Ishmael, son of the Biblical patriarch Abraham, and Sam, a teenager in New York City, as they try to come to terms with being abandoned by their fathers and with the love they feel for their younger stepbrothers.

Midshipwizard Halcyon Blithe
by James Ward

When he comes into his magical powers at age 16, Halcyon Blithe becomes a member of the crew of a dragonship, a vessel which harnesses the body and strength of a living dragon, and prepares for his first battle. First in a series.

Peaches
by Jodi Lynn Anderson

Three teenaged girls from very different backgrounds, thrown together to pick peaches in a Georgia orchard, spend a summer in pursuit of the right boy, the truest of friends, and the perfect peach.

Looking for Alaska
by John Green

Sixteen-year-old Miles' first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama includes good friends and great pranks, but is defined by the search for answers about life and death after a fatal car crash.

Shackleton's Stowaway
by Victoria McKernan
A fictionalized account of the adventures of eighteen-year-old Perce Blackborow, who stowed away for the 1914 Shackleton Antarctic expedition and, after their ship Endurance was crushed by ice, endured many hardships, including the loss of the toes of his left foot to frostbite, during the nearly two-year return journey across sea and ice.